The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former insurance commissioner sentenced
Former Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was sentenced to seven years and three months in a federal prison after being convicted of swindling his employer out of $2 million.
U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen also sentenced Beck, once he leaves prison, to serve three years of supervised release. The judge ordered Beck, a former head of the Georgia Christian Coalition, to pay $2.6 million in restitution.
Prosecutors said Beck lied to close friends he’s known for 25 years and a family member to get them to create companies to send invoices to his then-employer, the Georgia Underwriting Association, the state-created insurer for high-risk customers who’ve had trouble buying coverage. The invoices were often for work that wasn’t actually done, and Beck, the association’s general manager, funneled the money back to himself, according to the initial indictment.
Beck apparently used the stolen money to pay his credit card bills and taxes, while also pumping some of it into his successful 2018 campaign for insurance commissioner.
During the sentencing, Cohen slammed Beck, saying he had betrayed people close to him and then repeatedly lied on the witness stand.
“The testimony was outrageous,” Cohen said. “It was as if he was making it up as he went along.”
On the witness stand, Beck had insisted he’d committed no scam and tried to shift blame to a man named Jerry Jordan, who might not have even existed. No one, including Beck, could find Jordan.
Beck had only been in office for four months when the U.S. attorney’s office in early May 2019 announced a 38-count indictment charging him with fraud and money laundering.
A federal grand jury later added an additional count of mail fraud and four new counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns for the 2014 through 2017 tax years.
Even though he was only in office for a few short months, Beck could leave a lasting impression on government in Georgia. After he was indicted, Beck chose not to resign, instead asking Gov. Brian Kemp to suspend him.
While he was suspended, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in January, the state continued to spend about $200,000 a year on Beck’s salary and benefits. That led lawmakers to approve a proposed constitutional amendment — which will be on the 2022 ballot — to eliminate pay for state officials suspended from office while facing felony indictments.